EVH Photo Credit: Neil Zlozower
It turns out there was one guy who could stump Edward Van Halen and that was Frank Zappa.
During a recent radio interview, Dweezil Zappa revealed the one song Edward could never play. Greg Prato shared his article originally posted to Ultimate Guitar with the VHND:
Frank Zappa was known to compose some extraordinarily difficult pieces, with it widely agreed that “The Black Page #1” being the most complex. But he also offered up quite a few other similarly tricky ditties throughout his recording career.
During a recent interview with his oldest son, Dweezil, on 100 FM The Pike, the topic of Eddie Van Halen came up, who was friends with the Zappa family and even produced a single for a then pre-teen Dweezil, “My Mother Is a Space Cadet,” in 1982. And it turns out that there was a specific Frank Zappa tune other than “The Black Page #1” that proved perplexing to Van Halen.
“Having worked with Edward Van Halen on the very first recording that I ever did when I was 12 years old, and then remaining friends with him over the years, until there was this really interesting, fun experience,” Zappa said (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar). “Where he came to one of my shows back in 2010, and we were playing the song ‘St. Alfonzo’s Pancake Breakfast,’ which we actually are playing on this upcoming tour, as well.”
“But after the show, he came up. He said, ‘What’s that ‘pancake song’? What are you playing there?’ And I had to play this really difficult part and show it to him on the guitar. He goes, ‘I don’t even understand how you’re playing that. I could never play that.'”
“So in that moment, it was a total role reversal, because me as a 12-year-old, I was saying, ‘Play ‘Eruption,’ play ‘Mean Street.” You know, thinking I could never play that. So, I had this complete oddball experience in that moment. It was like the Jedi mind trick or something. It was very strange.”
Dweezil will launch a tribute tour to his father’s music on August 1, “Rox(Postroph)y,” which will include selections from two classic albums: “Roxy & Elsewhere” and “Apostrophe.”